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I laugh at Melvin's comments. They dont want to spend money, so they can maintain "flexibility", and then when players come around they could use with that "flexibility", they either dont want to pay for them or dont want to trade for them.

So after watching the bullpen basically cost this team a playoff spot last season, Melvin does nothing at the Winter Meetings to shore it up.

Congrats, Milwaukee! Your reward for making Miller Park one of the top 6 most attended venues in the NL is a 30% drop in player payroll.

Well I've said it before. We have a long term problem if averaging over 30,000 fans per game is not enough. Not blaming Mark. It's just the way it is. But the reality is that the attendance has gone below 2 million at Miller Park before So it can happen again. Hard to imagine what the payroll would be at if that happens. So it honestly just bugs me that it's a struggle when we're doing this well.

Just look at what happened in Cleveland. If you keep letting your studs go and deplete the farm system, people will not come. Cleveland had an unbelievable sellout streak going years ago. Now they're one of the lowest-drawing teams in MLB.

I hate when people use the attendance factor to argue the Brewers spending money. We were 11th in attendance, but among the most affordable food and ticket prices in all MLB. And if the Brewers raise any prices by $0.25, middle-class Milwaukee fans are outraged. If you want a major league team, this middle-class town needs to be willing to pay more for the entertainment. Without a salary cap in the sport, that's the way it is. Wake up.

Fangraphs wrote "Edwin Jackson is a pitcher everyone wants to acquire, but then seemingly can’t wait to unload as soon as possible."

You would think he might have an attitude problem, or may be just hard to get along with, having played for 7 M L teams in his 10 years.

He is a free agent for the 1st time in his career and won't be cheap. He is represented by the dreaded Scott Boras, and may be looking for a 7 year contract. He will probably sign shortly after Greinke sets a higher level for the contracts. The odds of Doug signing him are close to zero.

To me the starting pitching is close to the bullpen in the question mark category. We have 1 starer(Gallardo) that's shown he can give us 200 innings. Heck with all the other guys we hardly know they can be a soild 6 inning guy per start.

I think that's really the biggest issue we have. Your starting pitchers are suppose to be the core of the staff. But when they can't be counted on for innings then the bullpen has too big of a role when it comes to winning.

Really what made this team 2 years ago was having Saito and Hawkins pitch lights out for the 6th and 7th innings. Followed by Rodriguez and Axford. But it's just asking alot to have 4 lights out relievers. We lucked out with Saito and Hawkins because if you look at the past several seasons they haven't piched a whole lot of innings because of injuries. Everything just kind of fell together the second half of 2011.

Somebody just needs to step up in innings pitched this year. Honestly as of now I have no idea who can do that. It's just a big concern.

So the Brewers have identified left-handers in their bullpen as one of the main areas needing improvement, yet they won't spend $2.5 to $4.5 million a year to sign some of the best left-handed FA bullpen pitchers out there.

Maybe Melvin can find a blue light special and sign some help for the bullpen at minimum wage.

All - Remember this: A bad day of baseball is still better than a good day at the office or mowing lawns or checking off items on your wife's list of chores for you to do. They aren't going to be as good nest year. 75 wins will be a success. Miller Park is a great place to watch a game so SHOW UP! Don't be a bandwagon jumper.

The Brewers gave up the 4th most runs in the league last year, and what have they done to improve? Lost their #1 and #3 starters (albeit for good reasons) and engaged in "addition by subtraction" in the bullpen. That's not good enough. This pitching staff, as currently constructed, will not allow the Brewers to compete for the playoffs.

Relax, its early. They'll add at least another arm to the bullpen. The Brewers can and will compete with the starting staff they have. And they could be very good for years to come with guys like Gallardo, Rogers and Peralta anchoring the rotation. One name that could also be in the mix for the bullpen this year is Jonny Hellweg. They got him in the Greinke deal and he throws heat. And everybody that thinks they should add starting pitching or don't have young talented arms you also might want to take a look at other options they will have for beyond this year. Burgos, Thornburg, Jungman, Bradley etc.

I wouldn't be opposed to a 3 year deal provided that the Brewers did in the form of team options. Sign a player to a 3 year $10,000,000 deal, make the first two years guaraunteed at $6,000,000 and the third a team option that can become guaraunteed if the player reaches certain incentives such as innings pitched, win or if the player is traded by the Brewers the option becomes a player option, etc.

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